| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: As he spoke he gripped Maskull's arm. A sharp, chilling pain
immediately passed through the latter's body and at the same moment
his brain caught fire. A light burst in upon him like the rising of
the sun. He asked himself for the first time if this fantastic
conversation could by any chance refer to real things.
"Listen, Krag," he said slowly, while peculiar images and conceptions
started to travel in rich disorder through his mind. "You talk about
a certain journey. Well, if that journey were a possible one, and I
were given the chance of making it, I would be willing never to come
back. For twenty - four hours on that Arcturian planet, I would give
my life. That is my attitude toward that journey.... Now prove to me
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: his knees, and laid his head on Diane's hand, weeping soft tears such
as the angels shed,--if angels weep. As Daniel was in that bent
posture, Madame de Cadignan could safely let a malicious smile of
triumph flicker on her lips, a smile such as the monkeys wear after
playing a sly trick--if monkeys smile.
"Ah! I have him," thought she; and, indeed, she had him fast.
"But you are--" he said, raising his fine head and looking at her with
eyes of love.
"Virgin and martyr," she replied, smiling at the commonness of that
hackneyed expression, but giving it a freshness of meaning by her
smile, so full of painful gayety. "If I laugh," she continued, "it is
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: and his head bowed forward as though he were meditating.
Thus he sat waiting until he might see the landlord apart, and Eadom
did not know him, but thought him to be some poor tired friar,
so he let him sit without saying a word to him or molesting him,
though he liked not the cloth. "For," said he to himself,
"it is a hard heart that kicks the lame dog from off the sill."
As Stutely sat thus, there came a great house cat and rubbed
against his knee, raising his robe a palm's-breadth high.
Stutely pushed his robe quickly down again, but the constable
who commanded the Sheriffs men saw what had passed,
and saw also fair Lincoln green beneath the friar's robe.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: Tim. I wondered how he looked now, and what he was doing, and
how in blazes he managed to get away with fifty thousand a year.
And then one Sunday in June, while I was lying on my bunk, Tim
pushed open the door and walked in. I was young, but I'd seen a
lot, and I knew the expression of his face. So I laid low and
said nothing.
In a minute the door opened again, and Buck Johnson himself came
in.
"How do," said he; "I saw you ride up."
"How do you do," replied Tim.
"I know all about you," said Buck, without any preliminaries;
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